Start

End

Group

Hello,
We have recently submitted our Skilled Independent Visa (subclass 189) application. It was only during our medical examinations we have realised that the development delays/signs of autism in children would be a deal breaker for obtaining a PR visa. My kid (3 years and 4 months) had shown some signs of autism when he was 2.5 years old and has been attending an early intervention program ever since. He also attends a regular play school here in our city.
He was non-verbal just 10 months ago, but his speech has significantly improved in the last few months. He now speaks more than 300-400 words (eg: fruits, vegetables, colours, animals, vehicles, planets, action words, weeks, months etc..) and uses 3-4 word sentences like "I want water please", "open the door", "cover me with a blanket", "I see a phone" etc.. and asks for assistance using sentences like "help me". He can also count numbers up to 50 and trace alphabets among other things. He also started reading 3-letter words without much assistance.
He has been potty trained for over two weeks now and is generally doing well with his needs. We believe he is doing reasonably well in both his schools as we receive positive feedback from his teachers.
As part of his medical examination earlier this week, we have provided the details of his speech delay and his current pre-school program (early intervention) information to the Doctor. Since there was no formal diagnosis of ASD, and considering his recent improvements we didn't mention anything about his earlier signs of autism. Since my kid showed a lack of interest/attentiveness in this session(and also didn't answer couple of questions), the Doctor suggested that he may have to refer his case back to the Australian Immigration department. He basically suggested that the DoHA may ask for additional details from his school about his attention deficit. I now see the following message from Immiaccount.
"A Medical Officer has determined that additional health information is required to determine whether this person meets the health requirement for the visa subclass specified".
Does this mean further medical tests will be conducted? And what tests do they generally conduct to determine my child's condition. I believe they may probably do some psychological evaluation to determine if he is on the spectrum, but not sure how this really works. We have only observed few of these highlighted symptoms in our child recently, and wondering if this would put him on the spectrum and make him ineligible for this Visa.
Please advice if we should seek professional help (George Lombard or Peter Bollard) for this case right away, or wait a bit longer to see the results from further medical tests (if any)? Apologies for the long post, but would really appreciate any valuable inputs from forum members.

Hi everyone!
May I ask if any of you here has the same situation as I? I have received an ITA for Visa 489 last May 17, 2018. My partner and I has applied for it together with my 15 year old son. Unfortunately, it really did not cross my mind that ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) is a big issue and hurdle in our application. I have sought advise from my agency here in Singapore and they have told me to proceed since of course a substantial amount has been paid for. Now, my situation is that my son was diagnosed with PDD NOS(Pervasive Developmental Disorder Non Otherwise Specified) when he was 3 years old, we followed what the Developmental Pedia advised us before to get Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. Also, his pediatrician has encouraged us to still enroll him in mainstream school and observe him if he is able to cope. Fortunately, he has really grown into a productive person, he is in the top ten of his class and he is really amazing with computer stuff, sometimes the school sends him to represent in a contest. I feel so sad for these past weeks thinking about our application and the implications his diagnosis will have with our future. Any insights on this matter will be greatly appreciated. I am now in the stage of preparing my documents for the VISA application. I have read in a lot of forums that Mr. George Lombard is an expert in this field, so I have sent him a query about our chances. Should I hold off the application for now and wait for his reply or should I proceed? Any insights about this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance and God bless!

Hi again,
As part of arranging our move back to the UK, it will be really important for me to be able to ensure that my secondary school aged son is able to have a reasonable school experience despite being on the high functioning end of the Autism Spectrum (ie. Asperger syndrome type issues, but otherwise pretty bright). He has really struggled with primary schooling over here in Australia. The school systems in Oz are often so unresponsive to the needs of these children that home schooling is often suggested/forced on them. This really isn't an option for us as I'm a single Mum and the sole family breadwinner. Furthermore he's a sociable lad (it's myth that just because they're often excluded these kids are interested in socialising). He currently is going to a very good school for his needs in Brisbane - it's one in the Catholic system (though we're not Catholic). Please don't advise me to stay on in Australia until he's finished high school here. That won't work for a bunch of reasons to lengthy to go into here.
As mentioned previously, we're looking at moving to the southern part of the Greater London area. House not yet selected/purchased. Locations restricted by amount I can afford to pay. Does anyone out there know what I need to do to make sure that local school provides appropriate support. On the whole I've been advised by Brits over here that the disability services system is of a higher standard than Australia, but I'm not clear about how this translates across to support for kids with non-visible, yet diagnosed, disabilities in mainstream education in the UK. As mentioned, his IQ is quite high so he doesn't need to go to a segregated special school. I'm wondering if there's some paperwork I can start to organise at this end, advocacy organisations or support groups I can join that would be helpful, or whether there's a specific government or non-government agency that can help. Info I've found by trawling the web so far seems a bit general. Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you. :biggrin:

Hi every one
We are looking forward to our move to Melbourne from Scotland.
The only one worry I have is my child who is currently 5 years old and has significant delay in speech and social interaction. He well otherwise and is not any trouble to the school .
He currently attends school here in a learning centre and has support from other team members.
Are there are schools in Melbourne which cater to his needs. I dont expect it to be free and I am more than willing to pay for it if the services are good.
I have heard that the support in the state school is no where near what we would get here but I get mixed opinions about the private and specialist schools.
I am looking at Mooroolbark are to work if that is of any help.
Please help.